The Harper Potts Hall of Plots
by Harper Potts
Summary: A holding space for various plot ideas I've had that Harry Potterish. Mostly AUs with some crossovers. I favor H/Hr, but there may be others in here.
1. 1 Summoned by Zero

Like many other writers of Harry Potter and other fanfictions I have more ideas for stories than I have time to write. So many of my ideas never get beyond the concept phase. Several of these have come and gone, but I've decided to follow the tradition set by Rosarch's Blot and many other fine fanfiction writer and start storing my better documented ideas here. These are all up for adoption. Just please let me know you want to run with them and credit me with the plot seed and they're yours. Most of these ideas will be AU, but expect a healthy mix of story ideas.

#1 Summoned by Zero

On the seventh floor of a school named Hogwarts in a very special room a young wizard with messy black hair, green eyes and lightning-shaped scar busily trained himself to exhaustion. His Saturday morning workout was more extensive than his daily one. Physical first: jog five miles, go several round with a punching bag, and then cool down with a swim in a pool. After that he'd turned to magic, practicing each of his combat spells for speed and precision – not that there was much precision involved in the explosive curse.

"Bombarda Maxima!" The human-shaped target that was the unfortunate target of exploded in a shower of debris. Harry Potter shrugged. "Better, I suppose, but still not good enough. If only…"

If only what? His friends hadn't even noticed his morning workouts. Ron was worried about Quidditch. Hermione was still on to him about the Prince's book when she wasn't chasing after Ron – why? He sighed. Nobody believed him that Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater and up to no good. Dumbledore's lessons were useless know-your-enemy stuff. While Dumbledore might be the greatest wizard of his generation, he wasn't handing that knowedge down. How was Harry supposed to defeat Voldemort? The power he knows not? Harry scoffed at Dumbledore's suggestion of love. Was he supposed to hug Voldemort to death? If only…

"Wait! I wonder." Harry quickly exited the room. He'd want to completely reset it for this. In a corridor opposite a painting of a wizard teaching trolls to dance Harry paced back and forth three times. "I need to learn the power that Voldemort knows not. I need to learn the power that Voldemort knows not. I need to learn the power that Voldemort knows not."

A door appeared and Harry entered an empty room. He looked expectantly about the stone walls. The room was little more than a cell. How was this supposed to teach him about? All he got out of it was an empty room. Worse, he'd left his robes in the Room of Requirement before he'd reset it. Were they gone for good? He didn't have many so many uniforms that he could spare one, and he'd have to walk back to the Gryffindor dorms wearing his cousin's hand-me-downs. While Dobby had tailored them so they weren't ridiculously baggy any longer, he still didn't want to be caught in them.

As he wondered a symbol appeared in mid air shining like a mirror: a pentagram inside a pentagon within a double circle inscribed with curviform runes. The runes didn't look like the ones he'd seen Hermione working on. Those runes were angular. The feel of the thing reminded him of the graveyard when Voldemort was resurrected – ritual magic.

"Right, so what do I do?" No one answered him. He walked around the symbol. It was so thin as to almost vanish edgewise. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Maybe it was foolish, but he wasn't even close to being able to defeat Voldemort. His friends had all but deserted him and Dumbledore's guidance wasn't enough. He needed this. He pulled his wand. The memory of Cedric played in his head 'Wands out, d'you reckon.' Harry walked into the symbol and saw stars.

The room had vanished instead he seemed to be walking in space, among the stars. He couldn't see a floor beneath him, but each step was firm and he felt a tugging sensation leading him forward. The view was spectacular, no planets, moons, comets or nebulas, just stars against a black void. He wasn't sure how far or long he walked, but the end arrived quite suddenly when an oval of light appeared before him. Since this was obviously his destination he stepped through to thunder, smoke and falling.

The fall wasn't that far, not more than a few feet, but enough to knock the wind out of him. He'd taken much worse, and the sight he saw as the smoke cleared was much better, a pretty, no beautiful girl. She seemed close to his age, perhaps a bit younger. She wore a black cloak with the hood down to reveal cascades of strawberry blond hair. Her white blouse and pleated gray skirt reminded him of school uniform, the pentagon on the golden clasp said magical school, but school skirts weren't so short that one could easily see white panties beneath them. Harry hastily raised his gaze to meet the girl's reddish-brown eyes. Beautiful was perhaps the wrong word for her. She didn't have Fleur's allure. There was something innocent about her. Cute was more accurate

"Who are you?" the girl asked intently as she knelt down and looked at him shocked. She had a wand in her left hand.

Harry felt the fog clear from his head as he noticed she had her wand in hand. He was sitting on his wand. He immediately shifting his position freeing his wand, but keeping it hidden behind her leg as he assessed her stance. More shocked than hostile, but he also took in the surroundings. Blue sky without any clouds, warm sunny day – certainly not England in the fall. A crowd of people similarly dressed stood all around wore similar uniforms to the girl and most had wands out. Mixed in with them was a surprising variety of magical creatures. Behind them was a large castle with stone walls, not quite as impressive as Hogwarts, but still a good sized castle on what look like an endless rich grassy plain. Could this be Beaubatons?

The girl had asked a question. "I'm Harry Potter."

"Where are you from, muggle?"

Muggle? Well his clothes might give that appearance, but she was speaking English with a proper British accent. There wasn't any witch in England who didn't know him by named. According to Luna most of the witches his age had played marry Harry Potter with their dolls growing up. However, the sky and the sun did not say England in fall.

"Louise, what were you thinking calling a muggle with 'Summon Servant'?" one of the crowd asked. Everyone else started laughing.

"I… I just made a little mistake!" The girl, Louise, shouted in a refined voice that carried like a bell.

"What mistake are you talking about? Nothing unusual happened?"

"Of course! After all, she's Louise the Zero!" someone else said, and the crowd burst into laughter again.

Louise the Zero, and the laughter. This was all too familiar to Harry. Too much like him at Hogwarts. He was either the hero or the villain of the school. He tightened his grip on his wand, but he still no so little about where he landed.

"Mr. Colbert!" shouted Louise

The crowd parted revealing a middle-aged man who carried a large wooden staff and black robes. Harry immediately pegged him as a professor, but why a staff? Wizards hadn't used staves in hundreds of years. They were the primitive precursor to wands and inferior in every way. He wasn't certain whether to be relieved or worried that a professor was here.

The girl named Louise seemed to be in a panic, begging to redo something and gesticulating frantically.

While Harry felt sorry for the way she had been treated, he decided to remain quiet for now and play for time. He shamelessly eavesdropped her conversation trying to pick up whatever information he could.

"What is it that you want from me, Miss Vallière?"

"Please! Let me try the summoning one more time!"

Harry nodded. Pieces were coming together now. He'd asked the Room of Requirement for what he'd needed, but she had been doing a summons as well. This probably wasn't England, but was obviously a magical school. Maybe they taught some kind of magic unknown to Hogwarts! The power that he knew not.

Mr. Colbert, the man wearing the black robe, shook his head. "I cannot allow that, Miss Vallière."

"Why not?"

"It is strictly forbidden. When you are promoted to a second year student, you must summon a familiar, which is what you just did."

What?! Familiar? Oh hell no, he never heard of acquiring a familiar this way, but he was no one's familiar. Rather than speak up, he kept listening. The more he knew before interrupting the better.

"Your elemental specialty is decided by the familiar that you summon. It enables you to advance to the appropriate courses for that element. You cannot change the familiar once you have summoned it because the 'Springtime Familiar Summoning' is a sacred rite. Whether you like it or not, you have no choice but to take him."

"But... I've never heard of having a muggle as a familiar!"

Everyone around laughed. Louise scowled at them, but the laughter did not stop.

Elemental specialty? That was certainly different. He was aware of the elemental classification. It was part of magical theory after all. Some wizards did indeed have elemental affinities, but that was usually attributed to having a non-human ancestor somewhere in the family tree. The reference to a ritual was also a good sign. Hogwarts didn't teach ritual magic. Ritual magic was a closely guarded secret of pureblooded families. However, it was doubtful that it was the magic that he knew not. Voldemort obviously had used ritual magic, both in his resurrection and in whatever he had done to allow him to survive being killed in the first place.

"This is a tradition, Miss Vallière. I cannot allow any exceptions; he," the professor, Cobert, pointed at Harry. "He may be a muggle, but as long as he was summoned by you, he must be your familiar. Never in history has a human been summoned as a familiar, but the Springtime Familiar Summoning takes precedence over every rule. In other words, there is no other way around it; he must become your familiar."

Harry braced himself to speak up. They were operating under false assumptions, he was not a muggle. What bothered him even more was the throwaway comment that a human had never before been summoned, yet Professor Cobert was still trying to follow the usual rules. This felt just like Hogwarts. All too often he had ended up in situations that were decidedly not normal. Oh, save us from Voldemort, but don't use magic outside of school. His name came out of the Goblet of Fire, so he had to compete – never mind that he was too young.

"You have got to be joking..." Louise drooped her shoulders in disappointment.

"Well then, continue with the ceremony."

"With him?"

"Yes, with him. Hurry. The next class will begin any minute. How much more time is this summoning going to take? After mistake upon mistake, you have finally managed to summon him. Hurry and form a contract." Everyone voiced their agreement and began jeering.

Harry surged to his feet, wand up in the whip and tug motion, " _Expelliarmus_!" A jagged jet of white light flew from his wand and connected with Louise's wand. As Louise staggered back her wand flew to him and with a practiced motion he snagged it out of the air. "Let's get this straight there is no bloody way I'm going to allow myself to be bound to a magical contract against my will."

"Y-you're a mage!" Her words sounded unusually loud. The chattering galley of students apparently had nothing to say.

Professor Cobert stepped forward placing himself between Harry and Louise. His stance shifted and his staff came up. His kindly but stern demeanor vanished and was replaced by something much harder. "I am Jean Cobert, the Flame Snake, an instructor here at the Tristain Academy of Magic. I apologize for insulting you by calling you a muggle, but you just attacked a student under my charge. That was a mistake. I suggest you rectify that mistake by returning Miss Vallière's wand and standing down."

Harry had no doubt that he stood as much chance of winning a duel with Professor Cobert as he did one against Professor McGonagall. "A mistake? You're not giving me much choice. Would you fight before allowing yourself to be magically bound to a slave contract?"

"It's a familiar contract, not a slave contract, but I understand you now. Even knowing that it is a sacred rite and the will of Brimir, I don't know if I would meekly allow myself to be bound as another's familiar. Please stand down. You seem to be quite competent for a mage of your years, but I assure you that if we fight you will lose painfully."

"Zero summoned a mage?"

"Well, he can't be a very good one. Look at what he's wearing."

"I assure you that I will never again allow myself to be bound against my will." Harry ignored the chatter. He kept his eyes focused on Cobert. He was the only combatant that mattered now. While he might be outclassed, he hadn't bowed to Voldemort.

Colbert nodded and grounded his staff. He still looked ready to fight, but it was clearly a peaceful gesture. "Perhaps we can reach a compromise. I would appreciate it if you lower your wand so we can discuss this like civilized people, Mister…?"

"Potter. Harry Potter." The Flame Snake? Well he could do titles as well. "Tri-Wizard Champion, the Boy Who Lived." While Louise didn't seem to have a clue that they were one misstep from trading curses, Professor Cobert obviously understood that. The Flame Snake suited him as a title. He poised like a snake prepared to strike. Harry lowered his wand slowly, but kept it at hand.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a mage!" demanded Louise.

"You didn't give me much of a chance, now did you?" He wondered if Louise had some veela blood. She acted a lot like Fleur had up until he'd saved her sister. Then again many of the Slytherin witches had the same attitude. "I've had my wand in my hand since I entered that portal. It's not my fault you didn't look beyond my clothes."

"You are quite correct, Mr. Potter." Cobert shifted slightly, his posture more open. "I would like to welcome to the Tristain Academy of Magic. Let me assure you that I would have approached this differently if I had noticed you were a mage. However, that doesn't change the fact that we need to complete ritual. The Springtime Familiar Summoning is a sacred rite, as mage yourself, you should know this. For whatever reason you _have_ been chosen to be Miss Vallière's familiar. You said that you would not be bound against your will. Please consider allowing yourself to be bound."

"This is the bloody Tri-Wizard Tournament all over again." Not the least of which was the way he was being pushed into just agreeing. "Professor Colbert, I heard you telling Louise that a human had never before been summoned by this ritual. This is not normal. Yet, you're insisting on applying the normal rules. Do you have some better reason than having another class in a few minutes for trying to force a witch and a wizard into an unbreakable magical bond…" Wait, what? "Oh Merlin! Has it even occurred to you that I'm not an animal? I'm a wizard. She's a witch. A magical contract between wouldn't be a familiar bond, it would be a marriage bond!"

"What?!" The shriek from Louise could almost break glass and could probably be heard back in England. "I'm not getting married to some strange mage who dresses like a peasant! I'm already promised to someone else!"

Laughter swept through the watching crow.

"Please calm down, Miss Vallière, the wording on the contract is quite clear. Mr. Potter would be your familiar, not your husband."

"Not true," disagreed Harry. Apparently his lessons from Sirius on how to woo witches but not get trapped into marriage actually had some use. "A binding magical contract between a witch and a wizard is marriage. There may be a ceremony, but that's for the families. The bonding is the marriage." Maybe it didn't really apply. This situation was not normal, but Harry felt rather pleased with himself to have derailed Professor Cobert's attempt to force the binding.

Louise stamped her feet and looked on the verge of a temper tantrum. "I'm already engaged!"

"Miss Vallière, this behavior is unbecoming to your station. Mister Potter, would you quit throwing oil on the fire? I do have reasons beyond the next class starting to push for the bonding ritual. The Springtime Summoning Ritual is a two part ritual. The contract is normally done immediately following the summoning. I don't know how long we can postpone it before it fails altogether. I can understand your reluctance to be bound as a familiar. I was trying to discuss that with you, but calling the contract a marriage is not helping. Magical contracts aren't part of a wedding."

"They are where I come from." Well, they were. He didn't know how much. However, he wasn't exactly here by accident. He was here to learn the power that Voldemort knew not. If stalling would cause the ritual to fail, then perhaps he'd better compromise. "Louise wasn't the only one participating in a magic ritual. I was in a highly magical place that can become whatever you need. I asked for help. It sent me here, so I'll compromise. I'll agree to a binding, but only one where we are equally bound. In other words, a magical marriage."

"I. Will. Not!" Screamed Louise and emphasized it by stomping her foot.

* * *

And this is about the point where I really had no where to go with this story. I'm sure the concept of magical bonding a human = magical marriage has been done by someone in the many alternative familiars summoned by Louise. However, the idea was new to me when I wrote it. A real question for me was why would Harry Potter possibly agree to marry someone he didn't even know. The Room of Requirement told him this was the key to what he needed was my solution to this. I'll agree it is forced, but hopefully plausible. Unfortunately by the time that I got to this point I realized why so many Louise summons an alternate familiar stories die. If you summon a confident enough familiar, you pretty much throw out most of the plot for FoZ. That left me scrambling to decide what happens next.


	2. 2 With Deepest Regret

**Plot Seed #2**

 **With Deepest Regret**

Ron, who still had not said a word, took the badge, stared at it for a moment, and then held it out to Harry as though asking mutely for confirmation that it was genuine. Harry took it. A large P was superimposed on the Gryffindor lion. He had seen a badge just like this on Percy's chest on his very first day at Hogwarts.

The door banged open. Hermione came tearing into the room, her cheeks flushed and her hair flying. There was an envelope in her hand. "Did you - did you get - ?" She spotted the badge in Harry's hand and let out a shriek.

"I knew it!" she said excitedly, brandishing her letter. "Me too, Harry, me too!"

"No," said Harry quickly, pushing the badge back into Ron's hand. "It's Ron, not me."

"It - what?"

"Ron's prefect, not me," Harry said.

"Ron?" said Hermione, her jaw dropping. "But... are you sure? I mean -" She turned red as Ron looked around at her with a defiant expression on his face.

"It's my name on the letter," he said.

"I..." said Hermione, looking thoroughly bewildered. "I... well... wow! Well done, Ron! That's really-"

"Unexpected," said George, nodding.

"No," said Hermione, blushing harder than ever, "No, it's not... Ron's done loads of... he's really..."

.o0o.

Hermione Granger lay in her bed trying to read "Advanced Arithmetic Algorithms" by Count Eigen. While it wasn't what most people would consider light reading, Hermione had found it a very interesting book until earlier this morning. Normally when she read, she tuned out the outside world and lost herself in reading. However, ever since the... incident, she was acting very un-Hermioneish, in her reading. She kept losing her place. Her eyes kept wandering off and then she'd have to go back and reread. Even now her thoughts drifted away again to a badge with a large P imposed upon a lion sitting on a nightstand by her bed. It really shouldn't be a lion. More like a snake about to bite her. With a disgruntled sigh she closed her book and faced the source of her discontent, the talisman she'd craved since first year, a shiny golden prefect badge. She had more than earned it. She wasn't just top of the fifth year Gryffindor girls. She was top of fifth year for all houses. She'd worked hard and this was her reward. But... what about Harry?

Harry Potter was far from a diligent student. It frustrated her to no end that he put so little effort into his studies, but his results spoke for themselves. She shivered as the memory of hundreds of dementors closing in on her only to be driven away by a single powerful patronis. If only he applied himself. She glanced over to the prefect badge trying to justify the decision. No, it still wasn't good enough. If Ron had worked and studied hard, then maybe she could see why the prefect badge should have gone to him, but he hadn't. If she had to be brutally honest, Dean Thomas studied harder than Ron or Harry. He just didn't have their talent. So the award wasn't really for hard work. Besides weren't they Gryffindors? Awarding the badge for hardwork and toil was more a Hufflepuff thing to do. Although that didn't help. If bravery was at all a concern, then it should be Harry hands down. No one in Hogwarts, not even Albus Dumbledore, could hold a candle to Harry's bravery. It also wasn't for grades and knowledge, the Ravenclaw way, which left only one choice. Slytherin.

Someone had decided to withold from Harry's prefect badge from him. That was the what. The who was one of two people: Minerva McGonagall or Albus Dumbledore. She shouldn't jump to conclusions, but Professor McGonagall was strict, fair, and straightforward, but Dumbledore? She'd always respected, admired and trusted the grandfatherly old man, but he also knew far more than he let on. Which was certainly only right. He had studied and learned things she hadn't. She had expected with time and studies she'd learn what was needed and someday be his equal. Yet, why deny Harry the prefect badge that he so richly deserved? The way the Daily Prophet was writing lately, the way Harry had been almost expelled by the Wizengamot, all spoke of enemy action being taken against Harry. It wasn't clean standup action like a troll in a bathroom. It was like the girls who cut her down with gossip before Hogwarts. Little giggles and insuination from behind, all turning to fake smiles when confronted. It was something more insidious, but no less hurtful. Harry needed that badge now. He needed that physical token. It would be saying that Hogwarts and Albus Dumbledore stood by Harry. Not giving Harry the badge, it... left Harry on his own.

Why? Was Dumbledore throwing Harry to the wolves and stepping away for political reasons? For that matter it called into question all sorts of past events. Why was it always Harry alone? Why did he have to stop Quirrel, and the basilisk? Why was it on his shoulders to save Sirius? Not to mention the whole fiasco of the Tri-wizard tornament and facing Voldemort - VOLDEMORT! by himself. Those were just the big things. How about the smaller ones? Like letting the Slytherins walk all over him. The Potter Stinks badge was a shining example. School was far from perfect before Hogwarts, but they had tried to curb bullying. The teachers at Hogwarts either didn't care, or worse. When Draco Malfoy had cursed her to cause her teeth to grow, Professor Snape hadn't just looked the other way. He had denied the obvious. The system was horrible and corrupt? Was that just because of the bureacracy and politics of the wizarding world? Or was there actually a purpose to it? That way led conspiracy theories, but Dumbledore really had forbidden her to contact Harry over the summer. She had done as he had asked. No, she had as she'd been told. Just like she always did. Should she keep obeying just because? _When the time comes to choose between doing that which is right and that which is easy._ She had to smile. She doubted Dumbledore expected it to apply to this situation, but it did. She knew what the right thing was to do, but it wouldn't be easy.

Ron - that would be the hardest part. She had tried to be the peacekeeper between Harry and Ron, and not choose sides. If she declined the badge, she'd have to get off the fence. She would be choosing Harry over Ron and her red-headed friend might never forgive her. He wanted so much to shine on his own. She would basically be slapping him in the face and telling Ron that he didn't deserve it. What about Harry? Harry wouldn't want her to decline her badge. If she asked Harry, she knew what he would say. She could hear him, "Keep it, Hermione. You earned it. I don't care if Ron has it. It's good even." Harry never fought for himself. Only for others. So if instead of asking what would Harry say, what would Harry do? What would Harry do if he had received the badge and she hadn't? Would he have questioned it? Of course, he would have. Would he have kept his badge if she had been denied hers because she was muggleborn or some other flimsy excuse? That was easy. He wouldn't just return it. He'd throw it in McGonagall's face.

Quietly she got out of bed so as not to disturb a sleeping Ginny. She picked up the offending badge. Wistfully she held it to her nightgown. It would have been nice. She made her way to the study, pulled out a piece of parchment and began to write.

Dear Professor McGonagall,

It is with the deepest regret...

* * *

So... I've seen Hermione decline her badge more than once because she'd started a relationship with Harry and couldn't accept the prefect badge when Harry didn't get one. However, I've never seen just receiving the badge be the point of departure for an AU story. I think it makes a good one. Would the Hermione Granger who stood up for the rights of house elves really accept the prefect badge when it was obvious that they were being assigned by some criteria other than merit? This is a story that I could see myself writing some time.


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